Music for Pianos

Biography

Jacqueline  Fontyn  was born in Antwerp on 27th December 1930.At the age of five she began to take piano lessons from  Ignace  Bolotine.  She studied musical theory and composition in Brussels under  Marcel  Quinet.  Her musical education continued in Paris with  Max  Deutsch and later in Vienna, where she studied conducting with  Hans  Swarowski.  She graduated in composition at the Royal Chapel of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium.

She has won numerous international prizes and awards for her compositions.  These include :-

Jacqueline  Fontyn was Professor of Musical Theory at the Antwerp Royal Conservatory from 1963 to 1970 and Professor of Composition at the Brussels Conservatory until 1991.  She is regularly invited to give seminars and lectures in many parts of the world, these include France, Germany, New Zealand, Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Her music accomplishes a synthesis between the heritage of the past and recent acquisitions of musical syntax.  In her music, one discovers a sense of construction - the elaboration of a form appropriate to each work.  The composer has a taste for linear writing, combining rich harmonies and the exploration of instrumental possibilities. Rhythmic flexibility, free use of melodic material derived either from the complete chromatic range or from invented modes, these and the occasional use of limited  aleatoric structures are the hallmarks of her musical language, which continues to evolve.  The expressive and poetic dimensions of her works appeal to the sensitive listener keen to discover new horizons.

 Jacqueline  Fontyn's Works are performed all over the world and they are included in the  programmes of many international festivals.  She continues to compose with undiminished enthusiasm, into the Twenty First Century.

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